Vehicle steering control apparatus
First Claim
1. A vehicle steering control apparatus for automatically driving a vehicle along a road on the basis of both road end position information and in response to a steering direction switching signal, comprising:
- (a) leftward detecting means for cyclically detecting a leftward road end position data;
(b) leftward steering angle calculating means for calculating a leftward steering angle on the basis of the detected leftward road end position data;
(c) rightward detecting means for cyclically detecting a rightward road end position data;
(d) rightward steering angle calculating means for calculating a rightward steering angle on the basis of the detected rightward road end position data;
(e) switching means for switching a vehicle steering angle output from the calculated leftward steering angle to the calculated rightward steering angle or vice versa in accordance with the steering direction switching signal at a timing when the calculated leftward and rightward angles match each other; and
(f) steering driving means for driving vehicle steering in accordance with the switched steering angle output.
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Accused Products
Abstract
To smoothly switching the steering direction of the vehicle automatically driven along a road, leftward and rightward steering angles (θL, θR) are obtained on the basis of leftward and rightward white lines and by means of leftward and rightward cameras (7, 8) and image processors (9, 10) and a calculator (12), respectively. The obtained leftward and rightward steering angles are compared by a switching section (3). The steering angle output (θout) is switched to the leftward or rightward steering angle (θL, θR) only when both steering angles first roughly match each other, after the steering angle direction signal has been inputted to the switching section from another travel control unit.
48 Citations
8 Claims
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1. A vehicle steering control apparatus for automatically driving a vehicle along a road on the basis of both road end position information and in response to a steering direction switching signal, comprising:
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(a) leftward detecting means for cyclically detecting a leftward road end position data; (b) leftward steering angle calculating means for calculating a leftward steering angle on the basis of the detected leftward road end position data; (c) rightward detecting means for cyclically detecting a rightward road end position data; (d) rightward steering angle calculating means for calculating a rightward steering angle on the basis of the detected rightward road end position data; (e) switching means for switching a vehicle steering angle output from the calculated leftward steering angle to the calculated rightward steering angle or vice versa in accordance with the steering direction switching signal at a timing when the calculated leftward and rightward angles match each other; and (f) steering driving means for driving vehicle steering in accordance with the switched steering angle output. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method of automatically driving a vehicle along a road on the basis of both road end position information and in response to a steering direction switching signal, comprising the steps of:
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(a) cyclically detecting a leftward distance between the leftward road end position information and a vehicle longitudinal axis at a frontward observation point and a rightward distance between the rightward road end position information and the vehicle longitudinal axis at the frontward observation point; (b) calculating a leftward steering angle on the basis of the detected leftward distance and a rightward steering angle on the basis of the detected rightward distance; (c) checking whether the steering direction switching signal is a leftward steering switching signal or a rightward steering switching signal; (d) if the leftward steering switching signal is checked, checking whether the leftward steering angle is approximately equal to the rightward steering angle; (e) if approximately equal thereto, switching the steering angle output to the leftward steering angle in accordance with the checked leftward steering switching signal; (f) if the rightward steering switching signal is checked, checking whether the rightward steering angle is approximately equal to the leftward steering angle; and (g) if approximately equal thereto, switching the steering angle output to the rightward steering angle in accordance with the checked rightward steering switching signal. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
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Specification